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Thursday, December 31, 2009

2010 here I come, and I hope you don't mind that I'll be fast asleep when we meet! I do believe that I'm going to let everyone else bring in the new year for me while I get some much needed rest.

Today has not been a bad day, just long. We're having trouble getting Miss Stubborn to drink much of anything at all. We managed a little pediasure, a little pedialyte, a little apple juice, and some ice. I worry about her fluids, because she is still on lasix for her lungs. Her lungs. They're a little junkier today than yesterday. That is not good, but she is coughing, so that helps. I do think it's positive that Blair slept fairly well last night and felt like playing some today. She begged to go outside as usual. However, I wasn't happy with her response to her breathing treatments this evening, so I talked to the doctor, and he started her on the steroid. I hope we see some improvements by late tomorrow. We are praying for a better day tomorrow with more fluids in, less yucky lungs, and an even better feeling sweet Blair.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Who better to celebrate Jesus' birthday than with family! On Christmas, we spent part of the day with my family and part of the day with Brad's. It makes us nervous to be around lots of people, so we always make sure that no one is sick, and we don't let people pass Blair around.

At Gigi and GT's, we had a yummy breakfast and late lunch. We opened all of the gifts in between. My siblings and I drew names this year, so that was fun! I really love to give gifts. All year, I make notes on my Palm of things people say they want. I like to get someone what they wanted without directly asking them! Then it's a surprise, but not really! Our family is so big, it's heavy on the wallet, and it was a good change to draw!

Blair wanted to tote all the gifts around, and she was plenty of help opening, too!

Helping Aunt Molly.

For some reason, Blair likes to lie on the floor lately, usually with her blanket. A shoe box was all she needed Christmas morning!

Blair playing with yogurt in her buggy.

Gigi read The Night before Christmas to Blair. When I was little I could recite the whole thing!

We like to play white elephant or dirty Santa, and there are always some good gifts and some not so good ones.

John got a doggy door draft stopper. Too bad no one wanted to steal it.

Dad tried to hide his See Rock City bird house. He ended up with it, and I was kicking myself for not taking it from him. Hank got knives that I think he ended up with in the end as well.

This was funny. Mimi got a Chickfila calendar with a $10 gift card attached, and Molly took it. Mimi was not happy and wanted to take the gift card off before handing over the calendar! Molly won out though, and Mimi chose another gift -- number 5 I believe! People kept stealing her stuff!

Mimi and Molly

Mimi and Blair

Mema and Blair

Me and my sisters

Mom and my sisters

No trip to Gigi's is complete without some Sour Patch Kids! After Blair woke up from her nap, she pointed right to the jar on the counter and signed "Please!"

She chews on it for a minute and then she wants you to eat it.

Please, can I have another one?!

At Grandmom and Andad's, we had a delicious meal of beef tenderloin that I marinated in all sorts of yummy stuff, party potatoes, green bean casserole, crowder peas, and cheesecake for dessert. Everything was delicious.

We don't have too much luck getting everyone on the same page for pictures!

Blair handing Andad tinker toys one by one.

Brad, Blair, and Andad

Blair had crashed by this point, but her Aunt Mel gave her the cutest pink boots. Blair loves them!

Blair got our cold. Brad is feeling better, and after a day or two of feeling funky, I feel fine. Maybe Blair will get over it that fast too, but right now the poor thing is PITIFUL. She sat in my lap all day today sleeping on and off, moaning with every breath. We watched some TV, and she played a little in my lap with my makeup bag that she loves and my camera, but she wouldn't get down on the floor at all. She signs "please," and it just about broke my heart to see her point at that makeup bag on the side table and look at me with those sad eyes signing "please." I would have given her whatever she wanted!

Blair was still away last night, and we were hoping that she wasn't going to get sick. When my mother in law called me at 2:30am to tell me Blair was coughing a lot and to get me to come check on her, I broke into a cold sweat. I was scared. She wasn't as bad as I thought, though so I decided to wait until morning to call. Her nose wasn't stopped up and her oxygen saturation was fine, but she was getting up about every hour coughing. Her respiration rate was slightly elevated, but it wasn't unlike anything I'd seen her do before. I ended up going back home and thankfully got some rest. I was still nervous about being around her too much just in case she didn't have a cold. She coughed all night though, so we took her up to the doctor this morning to see the NP.

I love the NP just as much as the doctor, so I don't mind at all seeing her. Blair was in a terrible mood already. She cried when we weighed her, which she never does. Then she cried when the NP tried to listen to her chest, which she never does. We had to giver her a lolly, and of course she cried when we took it. Chocolate fixed that though. Blair didn't mind showing off though. On request, she showed the NP her ear, she coughed (the NP just about died laughing!), and she said "ah" with her mouth wide open! Not too sick to perform, I guess!

Blair tested negative for RSV, so we dodged that bullet, but the NP said that she thinks Blair has a cold. I was scared. I was sure she was going to say we needed to put Blair in the hospital. That's still an option, but we're going to do the best we can at home. Since it's a holiday weekend, the NP gave us an emergency prescription for an oral steroid. If Blair seems to be in distress and breathing treatments aren't working, I can call the NP or the doctor, and I'll already have the steroid if they think Blair needs it. The NP also recommended some pediatric nasal decongestant drops. A trip to Target has hopefully loaded us up on most of the other stuff we might need. I didn't have a humidifier, and the NP said it wouldn't hurt, so I picked up one of those, some saline nose drops, pedialyte, and some vicks plugins. The NP said the doctor laughs at her for using them at her house, but she said it wouldn't hurt to try it. I'm game for anything that might keep us home and out of the Children's Hospital. I adore the Ronald McDonald House, but I'd rather not be a guest there again!

So here we are! Right now, Blair's been sleeping well for about three hours. I think that's an improvement over last night already. She's still breathing through her nose, so that's good. She would be miserable if she couldn't have her paci. She's only been up once coughing. The breathing treatments every four hours help, and that's good too. I've had to turn the oxygen way up to keep the monitor from going off, but I cleaned out her nose real good when she got up, turned the oxygen back down, and she seems to be ok, so her nose must have been stopped up just enough to mess with the oxygen flow from the nasal cannula.

All this for a little cold. But I'll be honest. I'm still scared. She could get worse before she gets better. Sometimes we forget how fragile Blair is, because she's so lively, going 90 to nothing every minute that she's awake. But when she's like this, it makes me not want to go anywhere. We really don't take her places, but it makes me want to stay home too so I want give her something!

I just keep praying that God will protect her and make her healthy again. Please pray for her too! We appreciate each and every one of you.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Santa came to see Blair and was very good to her -- why wouldn't he be good to the sweetest girl in the whole world?! I can't tell you how many times a day Brad and I look at each other and say how sweet she is. She is just the sweetest baby I have ever seen. I know; I'm partial, but you know.

This is our living room decorated for Christmas. All of the gifts for everyone were wrapped on time and Blair's presents from Santa were ready and waiting. Our tree is straight from Whoville. I love a frasier fur, but we decided to save the money and use the one we already had in the attic. Most importantly we didn't know how a real tree would affect Blair. A big plus: this one is prelit, so I don't have to put lights on or take them off. How 'bout that!

Our Christmas tree straight from Whoville with Blair's gifts from Santa.Santa brought a chair, a plush dollhouse, a shopping cart, and some books!

Blair has had a great time with her toys. She is very proud of her chair. She climbs up in it and sits like a big girl -- for about 2 1/2 seconds. On to something else! She especially loves the shopping cart. She's figured out how to push it all over the house, even turning and backing up (after a bonk into the furniture and an "uh oh").

She got some crayons and markers that she will have to learn to use. Right now she just wants to eat them. I think all of the toys that Santa brought Blair have the potential to be used for a while. Santa likes to bring things for Blair to grow into!

Ringing the bell on the tree. She's got yellow marker on her face.

The other Christmas morning activity was riding presents! Daddy sure can think of fun games to play. Blair rode presents all over the house!

Just not the kind you think! We have been forced to farm out our poor child for a few days, because Brad and I both have colds. Ick! I feel like I need to scream (accompanied by appropriate buzzers), "ATTENTION: THERE HAS BEEN A HAND-WASHING BREACH!" This is the first cold I've had in over a year and a half, and Brad has only been sick once since Blair was born, so we've done well, I think. I guess this time one of us got it and gave it to the other. Who knows. What's most important is that Blair doesn't get it, so we've sent her to her grandparents' houses for a few nights, and we are praying that she hasn't been exposed to more than her body can fight off. That's why we pay all that money for those RSV prevention shots, right?

I do hate I have all this time and all these new toys (including my brand new bike with a nice new baby seat on the back!) and no baby with whom to play! Blair is having a blast though with Gigi and Grandmom and there respective crews. Please continue to pray for her health. God has protected her from sickness for over a year now, and we hope that we don't have a setback now!

While we're on the note of colds... I was going about business as usual this morning, and Brad said that I must have felt better than he did (as he's lying all covered up in the recliner). I asked him was he sure he wasn't just a bigger wimp than I was! That went over well. Ha.
More posts to come. I've been getting hate messages about my lack of updates, so I will work on it pronto!

Update: I ended up not having a cold -- I was being paranoid or it miraculously went away!

Brad, Blair and I went down to south Florida to see my grandparents for a few days before Christmas. The 7 hour drive was by far the longest that Blair has had to be in the car without a long break out of her seat, but she's a great car rider and did well. We had a few fussy moments, but she slept a good bit and was easily entertained with anything that did not come out of her bag of toys -- hand sanitizer, a straw, potato chips bag, paper towels, our phones, etc.). She did play with her Laugh 'n' Learn piggy bank pretty well until she whacked herself in the head with it and gave herself a nice bruise on her forehead. Passersby then saw my rear for a bit while I tried to console her from the front seat.

Playing with paper towels in the car. The mess was worth it.

So the drive down wasn't that bad, and we had a great time at Pop's house. I always expect to cook when I go down there, so I took my two favorite cookbooks and made a few meals for us. The first night we ordered pizza. The second night, Pop said that I could cook a chicken breast in the fridge that the lady that helps them had purchased for one of their weekend meals. I figured it was a package of breasts that I could fix however. Wrong. It was one, yes one, chicken breast stuffed with something. That was definitely not going to work for four people. So, I made a grocery list and decided that Brad could run to the store so that he wouldn't have to sit there by himself with Pop. There's nothing wrong with his being alone with Pop -- it's just that he my grandfather, and I thought it might be awkward. That plan backfired. Pop insisted on going to the store with Brad, so off they went, and I stayed with Blair.

Pop enjoyed playing with Blair.

I ended up fixing the chicken breast for Pop and Lida Lee, and since Brad had been asking for pan fried chicken, that's what I did for us. The next night we had pork loin with cranberry raisin sauce which is always yummy, except that I overcooked the pork a tad. I don't do well without a meat thermometer! I made sour cream biscuits that Pop adored. He might as well have sung them a love song! I was sure to make some more the next night so that they would have plenty in the freezer!

The weather was beautiful while we were there. We took Blair on several walks around the island.

Riding around with her feet propped.

Everyone has citrus trees in their yard.

I love these trees. The one on the left is a palm tree with a cactus growing in it and the other has all of those beautiful plants growing in it.

I love birds of paradise!

A beautiful house with a gorgeous Great Dane on the porch.

We did some shopping (we mostly just looked).

The newspaper had interesting decorations!

And we let Blair play on the playground at the inn.

Blair and me in front of the Christmas tree at the inn.

Getting ready to slide!

Blair's first slide!

She loved watching the birds fly over the water, and she really enjoyed throwing rocks off of the dock.

Riding her car with daddy.

Blair's into smiling on demand these days.

Getting her rock ready and chunking it into the water.

Our sweet girl brushing her teeth with daddy.

Blair showed a bunch of her tricks and made us laugh like always. Pop and Lida Lee really enjoyed watching her. I really wish it weren't so far, because I would love to go more often. Pop said that we made his Christmas. I certainly hope so!

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Child of God, wife of a farmer, mom to a miracle, RN; picture taker, animal lover, Spanish speaker, world traveler, former high school teacher. I love food, knitting, blogging, and living in a small town. I write about a little of all of the above!

Brad is my husband of 6 years and the reason I live across the branch. From a very young age he knew he'd be a farmer. God gave him the love and the talent -- and he's the best looking and the best dressed farmer I know! He's funny, creative, and he's the most wonderful husband and father. He's the one that can make Blair light up like no other.

Blair is four! We are so blessed to have her. She was born very sick, but God gave her strength and brought her through it. She has hearing loss called Auditory Neuropathy and wears hearing aids. She also has chronic lung disease, but you wouldn't know by seeing her! She is the busiest, funniest little thing who keeps us laughing and on our toes. I thank God for her every day.

Leighton is the happy roly poly who joined our family this summer. He has been a joy and is as sweet as his big sister! He's such a blessing, and we're so thankful for him!